House passes Born Alive Abortion Survivors Act as March for Life 2018 begins; Update: Trump speaks live; Update: Full Pence, Trump speeches added

Ed MorrisseyPosted at 12:20 pm on January 19, 2018

Today is the March for Life in Washington DC, the powerful statement made each year at the anniversary of Roe v Wade. Donald Trump will address the march today from the White House, a first in the long history of the decades-long effort to highlight the scourge of abortion and to promote hope over despair. The event can be viewed live here:

The Republican-controlled House got into the spirit of the March for Life today, passing on a largely party-line vote a bill that would require abortionists to provide care for babies born alive during an abortion:

The House passed legislation Friday that obligates healthcare workers to provide a specific level of care to babies who are born alive after an abortion attempt.

The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Act passed the same day that the annual March for Life rally was being held in Washington, D.C., which protests abortion on or around the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion legal nationwide.

The bill passed 241-183, with help from just six Democrats.

The legislation would hold any healthcare provider at the scene criminally accountable if an abortion is botched and a baby is born, and the provider fails to help the infant. Actions they could take include bringing a baby to a hospital or using the same type of medical care that they would toward a baby that is born premature.

Republicans have tried to pass this bill before. In 2015, another form of it passed the House but died in the Senate. Even if it had gotten past a filibuster, then-President Barack Obama would have vetoed it, just as he acted to kill a similar measure in the Illinois state legislature before being elected to the Senate in 2004. Democrats objected to the vote, claiming that the law would be redundant:

Rep. Jan Schakowski, D-Ill., said: “Of course if a baby is born alive then everything must be done to protect that life. No one disagrees with that. And perhaps more importantly it is already the law. And to suggest otherwise is just wrong.”

The victims of Kermit Gosnell could not be reached to answer Schakowski.

Be sure to watch the event as it unfolds, whose theme is “Love Saves Lives.” There will be a number of personal testimonials as organizers aim to end the horror of industrial scale abortion. Trump should be coming up soon on the agenda.

Update: If you missed the speeches from Donald Trump and Mike Pence, ABC News has them in this YouTube clip. Both were excellent; Trump in particular used his more personal and extemporaneous style to communicate his commitment to the cause.